


The Three Sisters of Tumbledown Creek

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Series: Assorted Narnia Crossovers and AUs [30]
Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis, Naruto
Genre: Age of Winter (Narnia), Ambiguous/Open Ending, Bittersweet Ending, Blood and Injury, Crossover, Dimension Travel, Ethical Dilemmas, Family, Gen, Moral Ambiguity, Ninja, POV Female Character, Pigs, Police Brutality, Pre-Canon, Pre-The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prompt Fic, Resistance, Secret Police (Narnia), Talking Animals, Violence, Wolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:40:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24649621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: In the days when Jadis the White Witch conquered Narnia and trapped the land in an enchanted winter, there were three Talking Pigs, all sisters, who lived in a little brick house beside a creek that flowed through the woods into the Glasswater.One day, they had some unexpected guests.
Relationships: Original Character & Original Character, Shizune & Tsunade (Naruto)
Series: Assorted Narnia Crossovers and AUs [30]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/130539
Comments: 10
Kudos: 31





	The Three Sisters of Tumbledown Creek

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the_rck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_rck/gifts).



> This fic was written in response to a prompt from [the_rck](https://the_rck.dreamwidth.org), who said: _I've got this weird idea about Tsunade and Shizune visiting Narnia during their years of wandering. Possibly for 'Someone Gains Purpose.' Maybe they meet Jadis. Maybe they think this might be where summons animals come from. Maybe they end up on one of the weird islands from Voyage of the Dawn Treader and explore a bit._. It is also a fill for the [Ladies Bingo](https://ladiesbingo.dreamwidth.org/) square: _someone gains purpose_.
> 
> This prompt turned into much more of a Narnia story than a Naruto story, and also fought me up, down, and sideways for over a year, but I won in the end. \o/

In the days when Jadis the White Witch conquered Narnia and trapped the land in an enchanted winter, there were three Talking Pigs, all sisters, who lived in a little brick house beside a creek that flowed through the woods into the Glasswater. Their names were Madeleine, Therese, and Antoinette Bristleback, and before the Witch's spell they made their living selling dyes and mushrooms, trout and crayfish, nuts and berries, and various herbal simples in the nearby village markets, as their parents had done before them.

Once the snow and ice came to stay, they still grew plants and mushrooms (though only indoors), caught fish in the stream, and mixed simples for coughs and chills, but they had none left over to sell and there were no more markets in any case. Everyone was either dead or in hiding, and the forests were bare and silent.

The first year was very hard and the three Pigs had no time to think of anything beyond survival. The second year they were still tired and hungry most of the time, but they began to reopen contact with their surviving neighbors and hear rumors of a growing resistance to the Witch. By the third year they had become comfortable enough to quarrel.

Madeleine developed a habit of vanishing into the frozen woods for hours on end to meet with contacts in the resistance, and said they should all three take up arms against Jadis the Usurper and drive her from their country. Therese said that they could do more good by providing a safe house and medical supplies to those in need. And Antoinette thought they should flee Narnia entirely, as so many of their neighbors had done in the short time between the White Army's victory and the start of the Winter.

They might have solved this quarrel by two leaving in opposite directions while the third stayed home, but Therese said their mother had made them promise to look after each other, and it wasn't safe either for Madeleine to join the army without a sister to watch her back, or for Antoinette to travel east to the sea where rumor said the Witch's spell had cracks. And neither Antoinette nor Madeleine would leave Therese alone in a household that needed at least two Beasts to run.

So they went round in circles and grew more and more cross with each other as the sun waxed but the Witch's winter clung like a vise around the marrow of the land.

"If everyone took your points of view, nobody would be left to fight at all. Where did trying to avoid a war get poor Queen Beacon and King Rue?" Madeleine said for the dozenth time. "With the Tree of Protection cut down, an army charging in from the Western Wild, and themselves killed in some bloody mummery the Witch pretended was a trial, that's where! Where did pretending to obey but hiding people in secret get Mama and Father? Locked in their house while it burned down around them and whoever the White Army was chasing! I don't see how taking up arms can possibly make this disaster any worse."

"It could _kill us all_ ," Antoinette said, also for the dozenth time. "Even if you're fine throwing away your own life on the off chance you'll take one of the Witch's folk with you, that doesn't give you the right to turn me and Therese into soldiers. Besides, I'm sure the Witch is just as locked in as the rest of us -- or even more so, if she's trying to hide from Aslan -- so the best way to win is for all Narnians to leave and let her rot in her own prison."

Usually this was where Therese would chime in either with the observation that if everyone went off to fight, no one would be left to feed or fix the army, with a plea to remember that the Trees and Dryads and water-spirits couldn't abandon Narnia, or with some sort of distraction, such as a task in the greenhouse or the mushroom farm in the cellar that required at least two sets of hooves to handle.

She failed to do so. Wrong-footed by this break in rhythm, Antoinette exchanged a puzzled glance with Madeleine and turned to look for their sister. "Reesy?"

Therese had wandered away from their midday meal of fried trout with oyster mushrooms and had her snout pressed to their front window, peering through the ice-rimed glass. "There are Humans in the yard," she said. "Two Daughters of Eve -- one adult and one child -- both wearing summer clothes."

"Humans!" Antoinette said. She exchanged another glance with Madeleine, this one more weighted with meaning. If they let the Humans in, that was tantamount to openly declaring themselves enemies of the Witch, who had done her best to kill every Human within Narnia's boundaries. If they didn't let them in, that was tantamount to letting the Humans die, whether from the cold or more painfully at the teeth and claws of the Secret Police.

"I know you don't hold with the resistance, but--" Madeleine started to say.

"Not wanting to fight isn't the same as not wanting to help, and I wouldn't turn away people _right in front of our house_ ," Antoinette said, and suiting deeds to words, she pushed back the deadbolt and swung the little blue-painted door inward. There were definitely two Humans in the yard: a tall woman with hair the color of straw and a short girl with hair like crow feathers, both with skin pale as button mushrooms and shivering as they spoke to each other in low tones. Their sleeves were short, their shoes left their toes bare, and neither wore so much as a hat to protect them from the snow. "Come inside before you freeze," Antoinette called.

The woman stared at her for a long moment, looking both surprised and suspicious, before she nodded and approached. She had to duck her head to fit through the doorway, but the child fit through just fine. "Thank you," the woman said as she brushed windblown snow from her clothes and hair. "I'm not entirely certain how my student and I came to be here, and we're not dressed for the weather at all. It was summer when we left Konoha yesterday."

This time all three Pigs exchanged glances. That sounded like these Humans had stumbled through a door between worlds, which was a rare, deep magic that never happened by accident. But they were the wrong number to fulfill the new prophecy of the four thrones at Cair Paravel. All they could do in Narnia was die.

"This is the land of Narnia," Therese said after a moment. "It's not supposed to be this cold, but the Witch who usurped the throne cast a spell of endless winter over the country."

"She also kills any Humans she finds, and she's locked the borders with another spell to stop anyone from getting out," Madeleine added.

"So once the snow stops and you warm up, it would be best to retrace your path to where you stepped from your world into ours," Antoinette finished. "Some doors only work in one direction, but I don't think Aslan or the Emperor-over-the-Sea would have brought you here with nothing to do but die."

"Stepped out of our _world?_ " the woman asked in a sharp tone, while the girl slipped one hand into a pocket of her wrap-around tunic.

Antoinette grunted in agreement, and then nodded to make sure her meaning was clear. "Narnia is full of doorways. Fewer now than in the morning of the world, since some only work once and others the Witch has found and closed on purpose. But any Humans still living here would know about the Witch and how to dress for her winter."

"Interesting," the woman said. "Is there any way to leave this land besides such a doorway?"

"The eastern sea--" Antoinette began.

"That's only a rumor, and they'd never make it that far without trouble," Madeleine interrupted. "As far as anyone can prove, the borders are sealed. Unless you can kill the Witch, stepping back through your door is the only way to save yourselves."

"Master, do you think--?" the girl said.

The woman cut her off with a sharp gesture. "No. Not against an enemy who can manipulate the weather across an entire country, maintain a shield around its borders, and manipulate gateways between dimensions. I wouldn't like those odds even with a full squad of Anbu and my old teammates. I certainly don't like them for you."

"But--" the girl began, and Antoinette could see Madeleine gathering breath for an interrogation.

"But before we talk about more important business, we should introduce ourselves," Antoinette said firmly. "I'm Antoinette Bristleback, and these are my sisters Madeleine and Therese. You must be hungry after walking through the cold and the snow. We were just about to have lunch, so come sit down and eat some fried fish and mushrooms."

"Thank you for your hospitality," said the woman. "My name is Tsunade, and this is my student, Shizune." Both Humans bowed.

Madeleine snorted in annoyance as Therese hurried over to the cupboard and brought two more settings to the table, where all three Pigs and two Humans settled down and began dishing up the food. 

Half an hour of innocuous conversation about foreign cuisines later, as Antoinette carried the empty plates to the sink and Therese poured a round of digestive tisane (peppermint, fennel, and coriander: one of their mother's favorite blends), Madeleine cleared her throat. "You said you don't like your odds fighting against the Witch by yourselves. Does that mean you might be willing to fight if you had support? And what sort of skill do you have in war?"

Tsunade's expression slammed closed like storm shutters against a blizzard. At her side, Shizune stirred in indignation, but her teacher's hand on her shoulder settled her back into silence.

"I don't fight wars. Not anymore," Tsunade said after a long moment.

"But you _could_ fight."

"Della!" Therese hissed, spilling tea on the floor as she swung toward her sister.

"It's implicit in her phrasing," Madeleine said, "and we've taken a risk opening our house to Humans. I think we deserve full knowledge of who they are."

"We didn't ask you to help. We didn't even knock on your door. If you're just going to be rude, we can leave!" Shizune said, before Tsunade once again pressed down on her shoulder.

"It's all right, Shizune," Tsunade said in a pleasant yet somehow utterly flat voice. "We've accepted their hospitality and so we have an obligation to deal honorably with our hosts. Madeleine-san, my student and I come from a world where many people have the ability to manipulate a force we call chakra, but which I suspect you might call magic. In your world the few techniques I've tried had unpredictable results, but in our world chakra is widespread and well-understood. We use it for many things, some noble and some horrific beyond words. I was a soldier and a doctor in my youth, but now I'm just a traveler seeking good fortune. I will not go to war again."

Madeleine leaned forward, ignoring her teacup. "You call Shizune your student. That means you're willing and able to teach other people how to use your magic. Why not teach whatever parts do work in our world to Narnians who fight against the Witch?"

Tsunade looked faintly green, but before she could answer someone struck a flurry of blows against the front door. "To the Bristleback sisters of Tumbledown Creek," a hoarse voice shouted through the heavy oak planks. "The loyal Trees have reported a pair of Humans passing this way through the woods. Open in the name of the Queen or be marked as traitors."

"Quick, into the cellar!" said Therese, pulling up the trap door in the northwest corner. "Close the window shutters and hide until we give the word." Tsunade and Shizune scrambled down the wooden steps, and Therese flipped the door shut behind them. She pulled a rag rug over the handle and hinges for good measure. Meanwhile Madeleine dumped the Humans' teacups into the sink and shoved them under the used plates.

Antoinette counted to ten, then drew back the deadbolt once again and opened the door the merest crack.

Two Wolves and a Lynx stood in the sunlit yard, wearing the quilted jackets and mail throat-guards of the White Army -- or the Secret Police, as they had been renamed since the borders and the Winter closed in -- and looking both cold and tired in the powdery snow. "Miss Bristleback. Did you see the Humans?" the older Wolf asked in her hoarse voice.

Antoinette knew better than to start with a lie. "Yes," she said. "One adult and one child, in summer clothes. We told them to go back where they'd come from."

The younger Wolf tensed as if expecting a fight. "How long ago? And why didn't you send notice of the sighting, or lock them up until we arrived?" she demanded.

"People around here mind our own business and don't have a ready way to contact anyone official. We also didn't want to shove ourselves into in the Queen's business, which she's made it very clear includes anything to do with Humans," Antoinette said, picking her words carefully. "But we're willing to extend a favor to fellow Beasts. Would you like a hot drink before you continue your search? Perhaps some fish and mushrooms?"

"Tonton!" Therese muttered in a scandalized tone. "Fish don't grow on trees!"

"We can spare a bit for these neighbors," Antoinette said. And hopefully, this gesture of hospitality would put them off the scent. "Come in and sit down before you freeze. Please forgive the mess."

She pulled the door open wide and let the thick odor of compost, mushrooms, herbs, hearth smoke, and fried food hit the Secret Police straight in their inquisitive noses.

Both Wolves sneezed repeatedly. The Lynx coughed, ran a large paw briskly over her ears several times, and shouldered past her partners into the low, warm room that served the Bristleback sisters as their kitchen and parlor combined. "Much obliged," she said. "Is that trout or perch?"

"Trout. We have a net trap under the ice where the creek makes a little pool," Therese said stiffly.

"Ingenious. I know my mother would love to see how it's done," said the Lynx as she shook snow from her feet and ambled toward the hearth. "I'm Florence Greybriar, by the way. Pleased to meet you, though it's a shame about the circumstances."

"Likewise," Antoinette said in a polite tone. "Are you coming in or not? Make up your minds before you let all the warm air out," she added to the two Wolves.

They came in as well. "Lieutenant Brynnhild and Private Gretel, formerly of the Appleblossom Creek pack," the older Wolf said. "Did you see what direction the Humans went when they left?"

Madeleine shouldered forward and bared her tusks. "No."

"As I said, we try to stay out of the Queen's business," Antoinette added, and wished she could kick Madeleine's leg without any of the Secret Police noticing.

Lieutenant Brynnhild raised her ears skeptically but held her tongue. The younger wolf, Private Gretel, wasn't so circumspect. "Many people say that. Hardly any follow through on their words."

"By which she means we do have to search your house," Florence Greybriar said in an apologetic tone, still warming her paws by the low, banked fire. "Orders from the top, you understand. Her Majesty is, shall we say, most concerned about the fate of these unexpected guests. Disappointing her would be... unwise."

The winter wind could not stretch its fingers through the solid brick walls to wrap around Antoinette's throat. The Witch's power was not that subtle, and she wasn't here to pay direct attention to this house. But Antoinette still had to take a deep breath before she could nod and say, "We understand. Madeleine can show one of you around the bedroom, workroom, and greenhouse while I take another around the outside to check the cellar."

And if they all had Aslan's own favor, the Police wouldn't think to ask whether there might be a second, warmer cellar with an indoor access point, to supplement the one Antoinette and her sisters used as their frozen larder.

Lieutenant Brynnhild thumped her tail once upon the floor. "Your care not to leave obvious escape routes is both noted and appreciated. However, protocol demands two searchers, in order to corroborate each other's conclusions. Private Gretel and I will accompany one of you through the house. The other two will stay here under watch. Who plays guide is up to you."

"I will," Antoinette said before either of her sisters could speak up.

Madeleine shot Antoinette a seething look, but went to join Therese at the table without audible protest. Florence Greybriar ambled toward them, poked delicately at the remaining fish on the serving platter, and then ambled onward to rummage through the kitchen cupboards under Therese's worried gaze. And Lieutenant Brynnhild and Private Gretel followed Antoinette, close enough on her heels to raise all the bristles on her neck and shoulders.

Antoinette showed them the privy first, a snug little room behind an inconspicuous door in the western wall.

"Surprisingly innocuous," Lieutenant Brynnhild said after a cautious sniff.

"We layer with ashes," Antoinette said. She carefully bit back the generations-old protest that porcine noses were just as acute as canine, if not more so. This was no time to dredge up ancient arguments about whether dumb pigs eating half-rotten slops was a more or less offensive stereotype than dumb canids eating each other's shit.

"I suppose you have a plentiful store these days," said Lieutenant Brynnhild. "Well. Onward."

Antoinette led them into the hallway that ran the central length of the house, right under the ridgepole.

In the bedroom, Private Gretel yanked back the covers on the three beds and shoved all the furniture aside to make sure nobody was hiding in the half-inch gap between the dresser, the wardrobe, or the bookcase and the wall. Antoinette's tusks itched with the need to protest -- she felt a sudden rush of sympathy for Madeleine's desire to strike at a clearly defined target -- but she held her tongue.

"Enough, Private," Lieutenant Brynnhild said eventually.

"But what if--"

" _Enough_."

Private Gretel flattened her ears and whined deep in her throat, though her eyes still flashed with zeal.

They moved on.

Private Gretel ransacked the workroom with similar roughness, shoving aside Therese's carefully arranged drying racks, sloshing precious contents from the vats of infusing herbs, knocking Madeleine's sand-timers to the floor, and tugging on the baskets of smoked and salted fish until the ropes holding one of them to the rafters snapped -- though nothing larger than a Sparrow or Robin, or perhaps a rather sickly Crow, could have fit inside them. Antoinette turned away. If she watched any longer, she would do something rash.

Lieutenant Brynnhild coughed next to her ear. Antoinette twitched, and realized she was staring toward the knives hung neatly on the wall by the cutting boards.

"Stand down, Private. We're moving on. Where next, Miss Bristleback?"

"The greenhouse. Can you-- er, meaning no disrespect-- that is, the glass, and the pots..." Antoinette trailed off at the cool, measuring look in Lieutenant Brynnhild's eyes and the approaching click of Private Gretel's nails against the floorboards. "Sorry. Of course you need to be thorough."

She led them to the greenhouse.

This designation was more aspirational than strictly accurate -- which was just as well, since there was no way Antoinette and her sisters could heat a room made entirely of glass -- but it did have three windows and two skylights, which was enough to keep their carefully tiered planters of herbs and vegetables somewhat grudgingly alive. It was obvious there was nowhere for a Human-sized person to hide, with the possible exception of the tool cupboard in the back corner.

She was certain Private Gretel would upturn everything anyway.

But as the younger Wolf peered keenly through the door, Lieutenant Brynnhild raised a cautionary paw in front of Private Gretel's nose. "I'll take this one, Private. Watch the door and our hostess."

"Yes, sir," Private Gretel said in an unhappy tone.

"There's no lack of honor in standing watch," Lieutenant Brynnhild said mildly, "and of course we don't want to inconvenience the Queen's loyal subjects more than necessary."

"Yes, sir," Private Gretel said, this time more neutrally.

"Excellent," said Lieutenant Brynnhild, and proceeded into the greenhouse.

Antoinette stood very still in the doorway and pretended not to notice the suspicious stare Private Gretel fixed upon her. She focused on the cellar instead. There was no way Tsunade and Shizune could have missed Private Gretel crashing around. And surely they were too sensible to open the trap door just because the noise had stopped. But how could they stay hidden if one of the Secret Police noticed the trap door? How much of their strange magic would even work in Narnia?

The Lieutenant nosed methodically through the planters, opened the tool cupboard, bent to trace her claws along the floorboards as if searching for trap door hinges, and reared upward on her hind legs to check the latches on the skylights. "Soldered shut?" she asked.

"Since the winter set in for keeps," Antoinette agreed. "They stand up better under heavy snow, and there's no point opening them for a summer breeze these days."

"Or for bees, I assume. How do you manage pollination?" Lieutenant Brynnhild said as she sniffed cautiously at a deep golden squash blossom.

"Some plants handle that on their own. For the others, we use dry paintbrushes."

"Ingenious," the Lieutenant said. "Very well. There are no Humans inside your house. The next step is to ensure they didn't sneak into your cellar once you turned them away."

"I certainly hope they didn't. We store important things down there. Give me a moment to put on my coat and I'll show you the door." Antoinette led Lieutenant Brynnhild and Private Gretel back into the main room of the house. Madeleine and Therese were sitting awkwardly at the table while Florence Greybriar held forth on methods for building ice fishing huts, in between tidy bites of fried trout.

The rug over the cellar door was undisturbed. Antoinette forced herself not to stare at it.

"No sign of Humans in the back rooms. We'll check the cellar and then try to pick up their trail," Lieutenant Brynnhild told Florence Greybriar. "Stop eating Her Majesty's loyal subjects out of house and home and get ready to strike out."

The Lynx gave the Lieutenant a lazy salute with her right paw. "Yes, sir. Acknowledged. You're missing out, though -- the fish is excellent, and the lavender tisane is equally lovely."

Lieutenant Brynnhild's muzzle wrinkled for a moment, on the side facing Antoinette and away from Florence Greybriar. "Perhaps. Miss Bristleback, fetch your coat and let's finish the inspection as efficiently as possible."

Antoinette tugged down her red wool coat from the pegboard beside the door and slipped it on. "Follow me."

Lieutenant Brynnhild, Private Gretel, and Florence Greybriar (and what _was_ the Lynx's rank in the Secret Police? had anyone actually said?) followed Antoinette out the door into the unnatural winter chill. Private Gretel nosed briefly at the sled tipped upright against the wall, but not even a Bird could have successfully hidden behind its runners and the Lieutenant waved the young Wolf on before she could knock it down.

As Antoinette hurried toward the northeast corner of the house, snow crunching and squeaking under her trotters, she heard the Police making their quieter way behind her, their own footsteps softened by the coarse hairs between their toes. When she stopped at the door to the cold cellar -- unpainted wood planks, slanted to shed precipitation and reduce ice buildup -- only the two Wolves were still with her.

"Where--?"

"--is Sergeant Greybriar?" the Lieutenant finished. "Doubled back to make sure nobody pops out of a clever hiding place once your sisters think we're gone. Your main room has far too many strong and muddled scents for us not to take basic precautions. Open the door, please."

Antoinette could hardly hear her own voice over the pounding of blood in her ears. "Yes. Of course. One moment." She pulled the wooden bar from the latch and swung the door up and out.

The cold cellar was dim and dusty, corners packed with sawdust and straw to make the blocks of stream ice last as long as possible through the occasional thaws. Racks of dried and frozen fish stood in tidy rows, along with the odd dumb rabbit or bird that had stumbled into Madeleine's traps. One corner was devoted to jars of stewed fruit and pickled vegetables, which might not strictly need to be frozen but certainly lasted longer away from the kitchen's heat.

It was obvious no Human was or ever had been down here. Lieutenant Brynnhild held her paw in front of Private Gretel's legs when the younger Wolf would nonetheless have charged forward to knock everything askew.

"Use your nose, Private," the Lieutenant said. "There's nothing to muddle trace scents down here, and I'm sure Miss Bristleback is already quite convinced of the importance of our search."

"Yes, sir," Private Gretel said, and shot Antoinette a thwarted look that promised trouble if she should ever have reason to stop by this way in the future.

The two Wolves sniffed around the cold cellar for a minute until Lieutenant Brynnhild declared herself satisfied that no Humans had been down there in the relevant timeframe. "Thank you for your cooperation," she told Antoinette as they climbed back up the steep, narrow stairs to the snow-covered yard. "We'll collect Sergeant Greybriar and be on our way. I trust that if the Humans do return to your house, you'll hold them and report the incident promptly."

"How--?" Antoinette started to ask.

"Isolated area or not, I'm sure you know a few Trees who are willing to pass messages to the Queen," the Lieutenant said dryly.

Antoinette shivered and glanced toward the bare branches and dark needles that ringed what had been their kitchen gardens before the Winter fell. "I-- yes. We can find one."

"Excellent," said Lieutenant Brynnhild, and lifted the latch on the little blue-painted door.

At first, Antoinette thought the room was empty. Nobody was at the table, after all, and that was where they'd left Madeline and Therese, and she suspected Florence Greybriar would have taken the chance to cadge a mug of their mother's tisane. But as she swung her gaze across the width of the room, she spotted three figures in the northwest corner and the rug shoved aside to reveal the still-closed cellar door.

Sergeant Greybriar had Therese backed against the western wall, claws unsheathed against her throat. Madeleine stood facing them, lips drawn back from her tusks in fury, but unwilling to risk a charge when Therese's life hung in the balance.

"Private!" Lieutenant Brynnhild snapped.

Private Gretel shouldered past Antoinette and barreled into Madeleine, knocking her sideways toward the privy door. Madeleine fell heavily onto her side. In a second, Private Gretel crouched over her, teeth bared near her belly in threat.

Antoinette stood frozen in the open doorway, knees weak, mouth dry. "What," she heard a voice say, too flat to be a proper question.

After a moment, she realize that voice was her own.

"Your sisters weren't silly enough to open the trap door, or even uncover it, but when two people stare intently toward the same frayed rug like it's a hundred Christmases come at once, it's fairly obvious something important must be underneath it," said Sergeant Greybriar. "Lieutenant? Your instructions?"

"I think it's a bit too late for subtlety, even allowing for Humans' generally weaker senses," Lieutenant Brynnhild said dryly. "I believe we'll start with the straightforward approach. Miss Bristleback, go open the trap door."

When Antoinette failed to move from the doorway, the Lieutenant set her shoulder to Antoinette's side and pushed her forward. "Now, Miss Bristleback."

As if in a nightmare, Antoinette walked slowly across the room, hooked her trotter through the handle on the edge of the trap door, and pulled it open. Lieutenant Brynnhild closed the front door and followed at her heels, watchful.

"Call them upstairs."

"No, Ton--"

Madeleine's protest cut short in a pained gasp as Private Gretel clawed her belly.

"Now, if you please."

Antoinette took a deep breath. "Tsunade?" Her voice squeaked and wavered. She tried again. "Tsunade? Please come up now." She couldn't bring herself to lie that it was safe.

Private Gretel growled, but Lieutenant Brynnhild simply wrinkled her lips at her subordinate and took up a position just to the side of the open hole in the floor, both out of the way of a direct throw from anyone at the base of the steep, ladder-like stairs and close enough to block Antoinette from doing anything to help Tsunade. Not that Antoinette could think of anything helpful that wouldn't get either of her sisters immediately killed, but she supposed the Lieutenant preferred to cover all her options.

"If I do, will I have a chance to speak or is this an execute-on-sight situation?" Tsunade called from the shadowy reaches of the cellar.

"Our orders are to bring you and your fellow Human to the Queen for judgment," Lieutenant Brynnhild said in a mild tone. "Her Majesty will, of course, make allowances for unfortunate complications in the execution of our duties, but if you cooperate we won't harm you or the three Misses Bristleback. We'll simply take you all to Joyous Gard."

"Where we'll undoubtedly be condemned and executed," Tsunade said, equally mild.

The Lieutenant huffed a nearly voiceless laugh. "State policy is not within the purview of the Secret Police."

"When is it ever?" Tsunade said. "I'm coming up. My hands are empty and I have no weapons on my person."

"Proceed," said Lieutenant Brynnhild. "Sergeant, Private, hold your positions. Miss Bristleback, sit down and keep your trotters where I can see them. Let's not have any unpleasant surprises."

Antoinette sat down and crossed her front trotters over the buttons of her red wool coat, shifting a few times as if trying to get comfortable. Simultaneously, she slid her left rear foot just under the edge of the trap door, where she could kick it up and maybe all the way over to slam shut.

She wasn't sure if that would do any good, but having an option -- even a mostly useless one -- made her feel slightly less weak and nauseated.

Tsunade began to walk upward, each step slow and measured despite the steepness of the stairs and the wobble that Antoinette kept forgetting to fix. She held her open hands above her head, elbows slightly bent, which seemed like an awkward position from which to attack anyone. Whatever she and Shizune had been doing in the cellar had left scattered bits of dirt in her long straw-colored hair and on her pale summer tunic, and she'd wrapped an empty sack (once used for gathering nuts and apples at harvest time) across her shoulders as a makeshift shawl.

She stopped a few steps short of the floor, with her torso entirely in the main room but her legs and feet still in the cellar. "Here I am."

Antoinette held her breath. Would the Lieutenant take that as cooperation or as resistance?

Private Gretel snarled, but Lieutenant Brynnhild coughed once and the younger Wolf subsided. 

"Thank you for your cooperation," Lieutenant Brynnhild said drily. "However, the report, which the Misses Bristleback confirmed, mentioned two Humans. Where is your companion?"

"Shizune is a child and I want to be certain the situation is under control before bringing her into danger."

"Such harsh words. Surely it's only _potential_ danger," Sergeant Greybriar said in a falsely helpful tone.

"Why you--!" Madeleine started.

Private Gretel pressed her claws deeper into Madeleine's belly, then dragged them back until the scrapes filled with a steady leak of blood.

"Careful, Private. Don't be in such a hurry to use up any potential leverage," Sergeant Greybriar said as Therese panted, frozen, within her grasp.

Tsunade swept her gaze across the room in a slow and obvious arc, from Madeleine and Private Gretel on her left, past Lieutenant Brynnhild, then to Therese and Sergeant Greybriar to her right and just a bit behind, and finally Antoinette in the very corner of her vision. She turned back to Lieutenant Brynnhild and raised her eyebrows.

The Lieutenant sighed. "Come all the way into the room and sit on the floor. Miss Bristleback, I assume you have bandages somewhere in the house. You may gather some and tend your sister's wound, as a sign of good faith."

Private Gretel made a stifled, squeaky noise of protest, then hunched her shoulders and flattened her ears as everyone's eyes swung toward her. "But they're traitors!"

"That's the Queen's business. Miss Bristleback, if you please." Lieutenant Brynnhild beckoned with one forepaw.

Antoinette looked between Tsunade and the Lieutenant, desperately unsure. The faintest echo of a reassuring smile ghosted onto Tsunade's face, but wary blankness smothered it after a mere heartbeat.

Antoinette's heart sank. If the Human was unable to hold that attempted confidence in the face of the threat to Antoinette's sisters, what hope did any of them have?

Tsunade climbed the last few steps out of the cellar and stood motionless for a long moment, her head nearly brushing the ceiling and making her height into an unspoken threat. Then she took two steps away from the trap door and folded herself down into a strange position, like kneeling but with her feet pressed flat as seal flippers. Antoinette hadn't known Human joints bent that way. Judging by Lieutenant Brynnhild's suddenly tense posture, she hadn't know either and found it suspicious.

Antoinette scrambled to her feet as noisily as possible. Drawing the Police's attention to herself was the furthest thing imaginable from safe or wise, but the less attention they paid to Tsunade, the better -- even if she had no idea what one unarmed Human, whose magic was unreliable in Narnia, could do against two Wolves and a Lynx.

She hurried over to the kitchen cupboards -- there was no hope of getting any _real_ supplies from the workroom -- and pulled out a bottle of alcohol distilled as close to pure as made no mind, a wad of clean dish towels to serve as bandages, and a tablecloth to wrap everything in place. She hesitated for a moment over a paring knife to cut the towels into shape, but pulled back her trotter at the Lieutenant's growl.

She hurried back across the frozen tableau of violence that had, not an hour before, been her warm and comfortable home and sank to the floor at Madeleine's side. Private Gretel's lips pulled back in threat, but Antoinette remembered the Sergeant's words -- if she and Madeleine died, the Police would lose most of their leverage against Tsunade. She stared the young Wolf down until the Private lifted her paw and backed away a single step, just enough to let Antoinette uncork the bottle, pour some alcohol onto a dish towel, and start cleaning her sister's torn and blood-slicked side.

"What should we--?" Madeleine started to whisper.

"Shh!" Antoinette dabbed more alcohol onto her wounds. Madeleine hissed in pain but mercifully stopped talking. "Turn around a bit. I don't want my back to everyone else," Antoinette murmured. Madeleine grunted, and together they managed to shift until Antoinette was between her sister and Private Gretel, with her back half-turned to the wall and Madeleine's back to the center of the room. That probably wouldn't give them more than a second of protection, but she'd take what she could get.

As Antoinette pressed dish towels against Madeleine's wounds, Lieutenant Brynnhild cleared her throat.

"As you see, the situation remains under control. Where is the second Human?"

Tsunade raised her hands to grip the coarse fabric of her makeshift shawl. "That," she said, "is an excellent question. Shizune, now!"

A blurred patch of color sprang free from the wall and tackled Sergeant Greybriar at the shoulders, wrestling her claws away from Therese's neck. As the Lynx hit the floor, the blur resolved into Shizune, teeth bared and a brace of metal skewers -- like if knitting needles were turned into weapons -- glinting between her knuckles. She stabbed one handful into the Sergeant's flank, right beneath the hem of the Lynx's quilted armor jacket.

Sergeant Greybriar yowled, kicked reflexively with her hind paws. Shizune rolled away unscathed. Therese, panting, scrambled to her feet.

The Lynx began to choke on air.

Shocked, Antoinette and Private Gretel stared at each other. Then the Wolf shook her head and charged, teeth bared.

Antoinette bared her own teeth -- a Sow's tusks might be small compared to a Boar's, but they could still tear flesh and crack bone at need -- and lunged. She was heavier. Momentum was on her side. If she could just get a proper grip and give Madeline and Tsunade and Therese some time--

The Wolf ducked sideways. Instead of flesh or fabric, Antoinette's teeth closed on mail rings.

The flash of cold, bitter pain in her jaw barely registered before a deeper, hotter agony washed outward from her throat and the room spun and she felt almost like she was flying until the hard planks of the floor rushed up and drove the breath from her lungs and Private Gretel's teeth wrenched deeper into the soft flesh of Antoinette's neck.

She couldn't scream.

All she could see was the thick fur of Private Gretel's shoulders and back, and a growing puddle of her own blood on the floorboards.

Something wrenched the Wolf sideways. Her teeth tore across Antoinette's neck. Two pale Human hands appeared and reached toward Private Gretel's mouth.

The Wolf let go.

Gasping, Antoinette tried to push herself away and caught a glimpse of Tsunade rolling off Private Gretel's back. Her hand snapped forward, struck the Wolf in the center of her forehead with a sound like an iron wedge splitting logs.

Private Gretel fell to her knees, stunned. Tsunade jammed the empty sack over her head and forelegs and tied it with her sash.

"Behind you!" Madeleine said, words swimming into Antoinette's ears like a distant echo through heavy rain.

Still kneeling on Private Gretel's hips, Tsunade looked up.

In a voice as hard and brittle as frozen iron, Lieutenant Brynnhild said, "Release my subordinate or I will kill the child."

Tsunade slid to the floor and tugged Private Gretel's bound, still body to the side. Her hands rested gently on the outline of the young Wolf's throat, blurrily visible through the fabric of the sack.

Antoinette blinked and tried to make sense of the room now revealed. The perspective was wrong, everything at once too tall and oddly stretched, and she couldn't judge distance at all. Surely Lieutenant Brynnhild couldn't be both a bare body-length away and on the far side of the room by the kitchen cupboards?

But that she was crouched over Shizune's prone body, one forepaw pinning down each of the girl's now-empty hands and her teeth held low and bared right beside Shizune's neck -- that was likely true.

Somewhere off to the side, somebody snored. Sergeant Greybriar? Had there been poison or anesthesia on Shizune's needles? Antoinette spent what felt like an hour dully wondering what sort of simple could first make someone choke and then fall into a natural-seeming sleep, before Tsunade spoke again and she dragged her mind back to here and now. 

"There's no way you can leave this house alive if you kill Shizune," Tsunade said.

"I'm aware," Lieutenant Brynnhild said. "The same applies in reverse if you kill Private Gretel."

Tsunade nodded. "But not Sergeant Greybriar? Interesting. Is that simply because one is a Wolf and the other isn't?"

The Wolf and the Human stared at each other in tense silence.

"Shh, don't move," someone -- Madeleine? Therese? no, Madeleine; that was her firm intonation -- murmured into Antoinette's ear. She reached over Antoinette's shoulder and pressed a dishcloth against Antoinette's throat.

Antoinette swallowed, moaned at the pain, then stifled another moan at the pain of making noise.

"Private Gretel is my responsibility," Lieutenant Brynnhild said, still holding Tsunade's gaze. "Sergeant Greybriar is old enough and experienced enough to handle her own problems. I'm sure you understand how it is with students."

Tsunade ran a gentle hand along Private Gretel's cloth-covered neck and face. "Yes. And with family."

The Lieutenant snarled. Antoinette sucked in a burning, terrified breath. But the Wolf made no move to hurt Shizune, simply kept her jaws a bare inch from the young Human's neck.

Madeleine pressed another dishcloth against Antoinette's throat, and then a third. That probably wasn't a good sign.

The cloths were a cheerful yellow, decorated with embroidered daisies. Such a shame to ruin their mother's handiwork with blood. Apologizing for that would be a terrible way to meet again in Aslan's Country.

"Stay with me," Madeleine hissed, and Antoinette blinked back to herself.

Right. Here and now. Be here and now.

Antoinette risked looking away from Tsunade and Lieutenant Brynnhild, trying to find what had happened to Therese and Sergeant Greybriar.

If Therese could hold down Private Gretel, Tsunade would be free to come to Shizune's aid. Or maybe Therese could startle Lieutenant Brynnhild long enough for Shizune to slip free.

If Antoinette could think of that, Therese surely could as well. Why hadn't she done something?

It was hard to see through the warped perspective, and her eyes took what felt like hours to refocus as she slowly looked to her right. But eventually colors resolved into shapes resolved into sense.

The Lynx sprawled on the floor, loose-limbed as a skin rug and snoring like Antoinette's father used to do on rainy nights. Therese sat beside her, stiff and still, eyes fixed on the middle distance as if caught in a waking dream.

"I worked in a three-person group," Tsunade said in a deceptively conversational tone. "When we were young, we would have died for each other or for our commander. But one of us grew twisted over the years and began butchering children just to satisfy his own curiosity and increase his power. Another focused so much on the big dream of saving countries that he lost sight of how to help the people right in front of him. I still love them both. But I wouldn't follow either of them. Loyalty is important, but loyalty at the cost of _who you are_ is nothing but poison."

There was another long, tense silence. Therese continue to stare blankly ahead. Madeleine slapped a fourth dishcloth over Antoinette's throat and cursed under her breath.

She couldn't risk speaking. Any large gesture was more likely to get the Lieutenant's attention than Therese's.

There was a loose chestnut on the floor, probably fallen from the sack Tsunade had brought up from the cellar. Antoinette scrabbled until she could hook one trotter around it.

She shoved it across the floor to strike Therese.

"Sometimes poison is the only option," Lieutenant Brynnhild said. Tsunade made no reply.

Therese blinked and seemed to come back to herself. She glanced down at the chestnut, then looked around in confusion until she saw Antoinette and Madeleine in their pile of bloody cloth and her eyes widened in horror. Antoinette blinked rapidly and pointed toward the Lieutenant and Shizune.

Therese shook her head and mimed jaws closing around her throat.

Antoinette pointed at Therese, then back toward Shizune.

Therese shook her head again, but tried to rise to her feet.

"Miss Bristleback, stay where you are," Lieutenant Brynnhild snapped without moving her teeth from Shizune's neck. Therese subsided and widened her eyes at Antoinette, as if to apologize.

Tsunade shifted slightly, moved one hand away from her implicit threat to Private Gretel's life. "I'm a stranger to Narnia. I don't know what you and your people have suffered, or why you made bad choices in the past. but today you have a chance at a different choice. My magic is unpredictable in this world, but I think I can blur the past hour or two in your soldiers' minds. This doesn't have to end in death."

The Lieutenant was silent.

"Or you could come to our world," Shizune said softly, her words nearly lost in the Wolf's teeth and fur.

"Or that," Tsunade agreed. "I don't know if the journey would change you, the way your world has changed the magic Shizune and I use, but it's an option. You could even bring Private Gretel with you. Make a new start."

Antoinette's vision swam. Madeleine cursed under her breath and pressed an already-bloody cloth to Antoinette's throat.

Antoinette breathed. Coughed. Strangled the cry of pain that tried to claw its way up her throat.

Lieutenant Brynnhild stepped back and away from Shizune. "I won't save my niece at the expense of our people as a whole. But I won't kill a child either. No one dies today. You're free to go, but if you remain in Narnia past sunset, I can't guarantee what might happen."

Tsunade stood, then bowed in a foreign but clearly formal style. "You honor us with your trust. Thank you. I'll cast the memory technique as soon as I treat our hosts' injuries."

She turned to look at Antoinette and Madeleine.

Horror bloomed across her face. She swayed like a sapling in high wind, slumped to the floor, half-caught herself on one hand.

Shizune scrambled over, stepping on Private Gretel's bound and motionless form as she came. "Master, don't look! I'll be your eyes and hands, just tell me what to do." She took over pressing the blood-soaked dishcloths against Antoinette's throat and gestured for Madeleine to move away.

Tsunade closed her eyes and pressed her lips together as if trying not to vomit. Then she nodded. "Yes. We'll make it work. Lieutenant, will you help?"

"No one dies today," Lieutenant Brynnhild repeated. "What do you need me to do?"

"Start boiling water. We need to clean and disinfect everything. Therese, bring more dish cloths or actual bandages if you have them. Shizune, I don't want to seal the wounds uncleaned, but let's see if the Stone Flow technique works in this--"

Tsunade's words faded into gray ashes and then silence as Antoinette released her grip on the world.

Some unknown time later, she swam back up through clinging darkness to the warm, red dimness of light seen through closed eyelids. She couldn't tell if it was lamplight or sunlight (bright and late, like midsummer, despite the unnatural winter) coming in through a window. Was it evening? Had she slept right through to the following day? What had happened?

Antoinette shifted slightly, felt linen sheets beneath her and a thick woolen blanket and cotton quilt above her. She was lying in her own bed. Someone had removed her coat.

Her throat felt numb when she tried to speak and all that came out was an erratic, squeaky groan.

She closed her mouth and opened her eyes. She was facing the bedroom window. Sunlight poured in from the right -- southwest, late afternoon verging on evening. Still the same day, unless she was very unlucky.

"Stay still," Madeleine said from behind her. "You're not allowed to move until Tsunade examines you and makes sure Shizune cast the healing spells correctly."

Antoinette cleared her throat -- or tried; it was hard to tell exactly what she was doing through the numbness. "What?"

"One moment. She's awake!" Madeleine called toward the doorway, then moved around until she came into Antoinette's field of vision. "What do you remember?"

"Nobody died. What time is it? Is it the same day? We have to get Tsunade and Shizune back to their world before the Secret Police wake up and Lieutenant Brynnhild has to report in," Antoinette said, voice steadying as she spoke. She tried to roll over but Madeleine pinned her in place.

"That's good, you don't seem to have any brain damage from lack of oxygen," Tsunade said.

Antoinette flailed at Madeleine's legs until she lifted her trotters and let Antoinette raise her head and turn onto her other side, facing the bedroom door.

On first glance, Tsunade looked confident and composed, the picture of a doctor coming to examine a recovering patient. On a second look, she was still frayed around the edges, as if she were also a recovering patient.

"Thank you for saving our lives," Antoinette said.

"Only after I put you in danger in the first place." Tsunade walked into the bedroom and held her hands near Antoinette's body, not quite touching her skin. "May I?"

"Did she do this for you, Della?"

Madeleine shoved her snout against Antoinette's shoulder with an impatient huff. "Yes, and I'm fine. No bleeding, no scars."

"Then yes."

Tsunade made a quick series of gestures and a faint magical glow kindled around her hands. She pressed one against Antoinette's neck and another over her heart. The magic felt like the jittery rush of drinking too much strong tea combined with the warmth and slow burn of hot cocoa blended with Calormene spices. Antoinette twitched reflexively.

"My apologies; that technique doesn't usually cause sensory feedback in my own world," Tsunade said. "From what I can tell, Shizune did everything right. You may be a little dizzy from the blood loss for a few days, but that will pass and the numbness in your throat should wear off by morning."

"Thank you," Antoinette repeated.

Tsunade shrugged and lifted her hands. "It was my duty as a medic. Let's help you up so we can finish making our plans and hopefully get everyone out of this mess alive."

Antoinette nodded. Madeleine scrambled up onto the bed behind her, and with her pushing and Tsunade gently pulling, they got Antoinette off the bed and onto all four feet. She swayed and nearly sat down, but Madeleine caught her weight and they walked slowly into the main room together, Tsunade following watchfully behind.

In the main room, Therese, Shizune, and Lieutenant Brynnhild were sitting around the table, looking stiff and uncomfortably formal despite the cheery daffodil pattern on the tea-set Therese had set out. Sergeant Greybriar and Private Gretel lay on the floor near the privy door, fast asleep and each with all four paws tied together with bits of the rope Therese used to macramé nets for hanging pots. The Lynx was still snoring loudly. Private Gretel's rear paws twitched sporadically, as if chasing prey in her dreams.

Madeleine helped Antoinette sit down between Therese and Shizune, and then sat down on Therese's other side. Tsunade sat beside Shizune, between her student and the Lieutenant. There was a small but noticeable gap between the Wolf and the Human and Pig on either side of her.

Antoinette's body seemed to weigh twice as much as normal, and waves of dizziness threatened to swamp her if she turned her head too fast, but Tsunade had warned her about the dizziness and in any case, exhaustion was much better than death. She lifted her teacup between both front trotters, told herself that winter wasn't forever and someday there _would_ be daffodils again, and took a sip of the tisane Therese had made. Raspberry leaves, elderflower, maybe rosehips? It was grassy and faintly sweet, like a concentrated memory of summer.

"I'm relieved to see you recovering, Miss Bristleback," Lieutenant Brynnhild said with a courteous nod.

"As well you should be," Madeleine muttered. Therese shushed her.

"I'm relieved too," Antoinette said. "Are the sergeant and private unharmed?"

"Define harm," Shizune said, with an angry glance toward the two sleeping Police. "They're only sleeping. They'll wake up once Master Tsunade lifts the technique."

"That's good," Antoinette said, and drank another sip of tisane. The warm liquid slid down her throat only half-felt.

Tsunade set down her teacup and clapped her hands. "Now that we're all here, we need to agree on what happens next. So far we've agreed that Shizune and I will retrace our path and hopefully return to our own world through whatever gate brought us here. Antoinette, Madeleine, and Therese will gather as many supplies as they can and leave to join the resistance. And Lieutenant Brynnhild has volunteered to let me cast a temporary sleeping technique on her to give us a head start and protect her from suspicion when her soldiers wake. Are we agreed on that plan?"

"Yes," Lieutenant Brynnhild said.

"Yes," Madeleine said.

"Yes," Therese said.

There was a pause. Antoinette took a deep breath as everyone turned to look expectantly at her. Then she said, "No."

Madeleine slapped her trotters on the table. "What else do you think we can do! We can't stay here. I know you don't want to fight, but you can work on food and herbal simples a lot better with the army than if you're _dead_."

"Please," Therese added. "We can't lose you."

Antoinette clutched her teacup. "I know! I know all that. But after today-- I can't. We almost died. Sergeant Greybriar and Private Gretel almost died. Shizune almost died. I can't walk into more of that."

"You have nowhere else to go, unless you'd like a stay in the cells at Joyous Gard. Not even the sea will save you, even if the rumors of gaps in the Queen's power are true. You'll never get that far on your own with the Police in pursuit," Lieutenant Brynnhild said in her raspy voice.

"I know. But you're wrong. I do have somewhere else to go," Antoinette said. "I can go with Tsunade and Shizune."

The whole table promptly erupted in chaos.

Madeleine and Therese talked over each other in a horrified jumble of, "You can't--" and "But what if--" and "--are you thinking!"

It was hard to make out what Shizune was trying to say, but Antoinette thought it was something about her world not being any safer than Narnia.

Tsunade was equally hard to make out, but Antoinette caught the words "family" and "important" and "how can you give that up when you have a chance to--"

Lieutenant Brynnhild growled, sharp and low and viscerally threatening. Everyone stumbled into silence and stared at her in a mix of confusion and accusation.

"You seem perfectly comfortable making choices for my soldiers that they would never agree to themselves. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised you're equally comfortable making choices for each other, regardless of Miss Bristleback's own clearly expressed preference."

"That's not--" Therese began, and then subsided. "Oh, drat. That is what we were doing, isn't it. Sorry, Tonton."

"I'm not comfortable with bringing people out of one war zone into what might become another war zone at any moment," Tsunade said. "The Second Great Shinobi War is over, but the peace isn't stable and there are a lot of warlords and criminals trying to make trouble. I'm not even entirely comfortable looking after Shizune. And there's no way to know if Antoinette can return to Narnia if she doesn't like the Elemental Countries, or if she reacts badly to the magic in our world."

"I'm an adult and I take full responsibility for my choices," Antoinette said. "I understand that nowhere is perfectly safe. I understand I probably won't see Madeleine and Therese again until we all arrive in Aslan's Country. But I _can't_ fight fellow Narnians. I know that for sure now. In your world, I can find something meaningful to do without joining an army. And I owe you my life. We all owe you our lives. I want to go with you."

"Are you absolutely certain?" Tsunade asked.

Antoinette set down her teacup. "Yes."

There was a tense moment of silence. Then Madeleine said, "I won't stop you. You're our sister and I love you too much for that. But I won't forgive you, either. Because you're our sister and I shouldn't have to lose you."

"I forgive you," Therese said, leaning forward to shoot a cross look at Madeleine. "But if there's any way to send a message back between the worlds -- any way at all! -- you have to promise to use it as often as possible and let us know you're safe."

"I will," Antoinette promised.

"Excellent. Now that all that's settled, you five need to pack up and vanish," Lieutenant Brynnhild said. "Foreign magic will only excuse so much dereliction of duty, and if my squad and I don't check in by morning, more will be sent to follow up our investigation."

Therese fumbled her teacup. "Oh no. What will we _bring?_ "

"Food? No, clothes. All the dried herbs we have. Seeds?" Madeleine pushed back from the table and began to pace. "What will they already have?"

"More importantly, how will we carry everything? There's the sled, but it's so small and who knows what kind of ground we'll have to cross," Therese said.

"I do," Madeleine said absently. "It will--" She broke off abruptly and stared at Lieutenant Brynnhild.

The Wolf lifted her muzzle from her teacup, licked her nose, and said, "Worry about things you can control, Miss Bristleback, not those you can't. It will be obvious one way or the other whether your sled is still here after you depart, but there are more places in Narnia accessible by sled than otherwise so that won't narrow our search area by any significant amount."

Madeleine continued to stare distrustfully. "So you say."

"Della, leave her be and come help me sort clothes!" Therese called from the hallway.

Antoinette decided Therese probably had that under control and looked across the table toward Tsunade and Shizune, who were speaking in low voices about distances between places Antoinette had never heard of -- places probably not in Narnia at all, but in the Humans' own world beyond the door that had brought them into danger.

"Tsunade?" she said. When the Human looked up, Antoinette continued. "You were a soldier. What would you bring if you were joining a small army?"

Tsunade looked blank, then briefly pained, then thoughtful. "That depends on a number of factors. I'll go help your sisters." She glanced toward Lieutenant Brynnhild and raised one eyebrow. "I trust our agreement holds?"

"I have no intention of doing anything other than resting my paws and enjoying this excellent drink," the Lieutenant said. "I do suggest you hurry them along. Sunset waits for no Beast."

"True," Tsunade agreed. She stood, then paused and turned toward Antoinette. "I didn't pay close attention to your sled before we came inside. How much can it carry?"

"About as much as Madeleine, Therese, and I can carry on our backs, but if we load it that heavily the runners tend to stick."

"Hmm. I assume that's your only sled. How would you feel about breaking your table and using it as a makeshift transport?"

Lieutenant Brynnhild chuffed through her nose. "There are better ways to carry supplies. A travois is simplest if you have enough fabric or rope to make the base, and if you send Miss Bristleback and your student out to cut the poles, that neatly removes them from my reach if my new inclination toward treachery should happen to spread."

"It also neatly leaves you alone with your subordinates," Tsunade said. She crossed her arms under her breasts and smiled with her teeth alone. "Of course, you might also have useful packing advice for our hosts. Shall we?"

The Lieutenant glanced toward Antoinette, who shrugged. The Secret Police could make a decent guess at what Madeleine and Therese took by inventorying what they left behind, not to mention interrogating their neighbors. It would save everyone trouble to let the Lieutenant Brynnhild see firsthand, and Therese and Tsunade could help Madeleine hold her temper.

The Wolf nodded, quickly lapped up the dregs of her tisane, and followed Tsunade into the back rooms.

Antoinette looked at Shizune's lightweight, summery clothes and her strange shoes that left over half of her feet bare. She sighed. "Let's find you some warmer clothes. Then we'll go chop down some saplings or branches and fetch the spare rope."

Her own red coat was miraculously both dry and free of bloodstains -- another thing she owed the two Humans, though smaller than her life. As for Shizune, Madeleine's old blue coat with the rabbit-fur lining around the hood turned out to fit tolerably well, and had the additional benefit of making the girl's skinny torso and limbs look much thicker. "You could almost pass for a Dwarf in that," Antoinette mused as she rummaged through the jumble closet in search of the leather wraps that she and her sisters used for boots. Normally they were neatly folded on the lowest shelf, but evidently Sergeant Greybriar shared Private Gretel's attitude toward searches and had scattered everything hither and yon before helping herself to lunch.

"Ah, here we are. Stick one piece under each foot, pull the edges up around your ankle, and tie it with the cord. You'll have to watch your footing if there's ice, but at least your feet won't freeze."

"Thank you," Shizune said. "Would it be-- if Humans are illegal in Narnia, should I try to look like a Dwarf? So that the trees won't report us to more of the Secret Police?"

Antoinette paused partway through tying on her own leather boots. "Oh. Yes. That would be good. Hmm. The coat covers most of your legs and the boots make your feet look big. All you really need to finish the disguise is a beard -- the bigger and longer the better. I think Therese has some yarn in her craft chest."

Shizune grinned, the break in her serious expression making her look very young. "No need! Illusion techniques work in your world. It's only the more physical ones that sometimes fail. Watch this!" She moved her hands through a few of the same odd gestures Tsunade had used to cast her magic, and suddenly a great, bushy black beard sprang from her neck, cheeks, and chin.

Antoinette clapped her trotters together in astonishment. "By the Lion! That's wonderful."

"Healing techniques are more important," Shizune said, but she was still smiling so Antoinette took that as a small victory.

She stood on her hind legs to pull the two-handled saw down from its hook on the closet wall and they headed out into the early evening forest.

The sun was sinking toward the west in the slow, lazy way that produced long summer twilights. The angle of the light looked odd with the snow all around and the broadleaf trees mostly bare save for a few clusters of tiny leaves huddled in the crooks of branches. Even that shouldn't really have been enough to keep the trees alive between sporadic thaws, but rumor -- one with the feel of truth -- said the dryads had done something to put the trees to sleep. All of Narnia seemed attenuated these days, as if the Witch's spells and the land's own magic had woven a net to catch them a bare inch or two away from the death that ought to result from endless winter. The pines and firs and spruces loomed dark and forbidding among their bare-limbed cousins, and unlike the others they still grew, albeit sluggishly, as their sap fought against the chill to make use of the sunlight their needles gathered.

Antoinette led Shizune toward the frozen banks of Tumbledown Creek, where a stand of pine saplings should provide both poles for the travois and needle-thick boughs to sweep away her sisters' tracks. It shouldn't matter if the Police tracked her and the two Humans to the gateway between worlds. The Police might be able to follow if the door stayed open, but everyone knew the Witch was bound to this world by the Deep Magic itself. Antoinette was certain that the Humans of Tsunade's world could deal with a handful of Secret Police.

"You should know that our world isn't much better than yours," Shizune said as they walked. "We aren't ruled by a wicked tyrant, but I think wherever people have the minds and hearts to want things, sooner or later some of them will have desires that conflict and then there will be war."

"That's true," Antoinette said. "But it's not my world, and your people aren't my people. They may become my people in time, but not in the same way. I couldn't live with myself if I stayed in Narnia and didn't try to fight the Witch. But her army and her Police are also Narnians, and I couldn't live with myself if I hurt them instead of giving them a chance to make better choices. It's hard to be part of an army without having to fight, and I don't want my sisters distracted by trying to protect me."

"They'll worry no matter which world you choose," Shizune said.

"I know. But I'd rather they worry about me than get killed because of me."

Shizune sighed as she ducked under a snow-dusted branch. "You sound like Master Tsunade. She always says the people she loves get killed because of her, but I think that's not true. Some of them died because of bad luck, and my uncle -- they were going to marry, a long time ago -- he died because of his own choices. If your sisters died protecting you, that would be their choice, just like leaving Narnia is your choice."

"Maybe so, but it's my choice to protect them by making sure they never need to make that choice," Antoinette said.

She circled around a holly thicket, its dark green leaves nearly black against the stark white and gray of the winter forest, and stopped at the high bank of Tumbledown Creek. Ice coated the stream, clinging to rocks and spreading outward in thick sheets. The water flowed swift and black beneath, visible only in a narrow channel where a recent thaw had rotted and cracked its frozen cover.

Antoinette glanced around until she spotted a cluster of pine saplings, struggling upward where the stream had undercut a larger tree and left a gap in the forest canopy. "Two of those should work and the pine resin will help fix the ropes in place. Do you know any magic to cut them down, or shall we use the saw?"

Shizune looked embarrassed underneath her illusory beard. "That's one of the techniques that doesn't work here, and I'm not advanced enough to break green wood cleanly with my bare hands. I can keep the saw sharp, though!"

"That's very helpful," Antoinette said, and they each grasped one handle and pressed the saw against one of the saplings.

They worked in silence for a few minutes, cutting down the first sapling and removing its branches, before Shizune stopped to rub her hands together, blow on them, and tuck them inside her coat for warmth. She looked sidelong at Antoinette and said, slowly, "You think you owe Master Tsunade your life and your sisters' lives."

"We do. I don't think anyone in Narnia could have healed me. Magic isn't as strong now as it was at the dawn of time, and even less so since the Tree of Protection fell."

"She's the best medic in our world," Shizune agreed in a tone of fierce pride. "But she's not-- she can't do everything. You saw how she almost fainted, right?"

Antoinette nodded.

"She wouldn't want me to tell you this, but it's partly because of my uncle and it's important for you to know," Shizune said. "She can't stand the sight of blood. It makes her sick, and that's dangerous. She's my teacher, but I look after her too! She's no good at paying for meals and places to sleep, and she drinks and gambles so she won't have to think about serious things. I take care of her, but it's hard and she won't always listen. So-- so if you want to come with us, I'd be grateful. She needs a friend, and maybe she'll pay more attention to you since you're grown up."

Antoinette took a moment to integrate this new information into her picture of Tsunade. Not just an old soldier, but one heartsick from war and loss, who needed healing as much as any of her patients.

"There's an old saying that doctors make the worst patients."

Shizune pulled one hand free and waved it for emphasis. "Yes, exactly! She's getting better. She doesn't get lost in her own mind anymore, like she used to do when we left Konoha. And having other people around helps remind her that life isn't always a tragedy." She paused, tucked her hand back within the shelter of her borrowed coat. "But I don't want to make you feel like you _have_ to come. Your family is important, too."

"I'll miss Madeleine and Therese as long as I'm alive," Antoinette agreed, "but we might lose each other even if I stayed. We still don't know what happened to our cousins during the war, and sometimes neighbors disappear and nobody knows if they've died, if they've gone to join the resistance, or if the Secret Police took them to Joyous Gard for the Witch to execute. And it's like you said: life is more than a tragedy. Whatever happens next, missing my sisters will only be one piece. There will be other pieces, too, like new friends and a new world to explore."

"Will I be one of those friends?" Shizune asked.

"Of course. That is, if you want to be."

Shizune flung her arms around Antoinette's shoulders, then hastily pulled away. "Yes. Thank you. Okay. Um, we can start sawing again now."

They cut and trimmed the second sapling, then gathered a handful of the plumy branches. Shizune helped Antoinette arrange them across her back and walked back to the house beside her with one hand extended to help turn and balance the load.

Making a travois was a task best left to people with opposable thumbs, so Antoinette left Tsunade and Shizune to put it together with Lieutenant Brynnhild's occasional commentary and headed indoors to help her sisters finish packing.

Madeleine and Therese had ruthlessly sorted through their possessions, and a worrying number of boxes and bags lay piled on the bed, while an even more worrying amount of abandoned items added to the chaos Private Gretel had made of their workroom.

"We're almost done," Therese said when Antoinette asked how she could help. "We have everything sorted, so now it's just packing the last few things and getting everything loaded onto the sled and travois. Then we'll-- well, then we all leave."

There was a moment of silence while they all avoided acknowledging that they wouldn't be leaving in the same direction.

"The priorities were food, medicine, and seeds. Also textiles, and any metal tools if we have room left over and they don't add too much weight," Madeleine added. She looked regretfully at some keepsakes from their parents. "I hate leaving anything behind, but it's even worse to know that the Secret Police will come through and rip it all to shreds just because they can."

Therese frowned at Madeleine. "Stop it. They're people too. They have reasons, even if those reasons are terrible."

"Fine, they'll tear our house down to send a message to everyone else," Madeleine said. "I still hate leaving Mama's things for them to ruin."

At that, Therese's expression grew speculative and she turned to face Antoinette. "The Secret Police can't ruin things that aren't in Narnia. What if you took them to Tsunade and Shizune's world? We're already sending you with your own clothes, and some food, and the little yellow rosebush you baby so much."

"And then what? I can't carry Mama's wedding chest everywhere I go," Antoinette said.

Therese waved one trotter dismissively. "Yes, but you could store it somewhere safe. And you could keep some of the smaller things, like Mama's pearls or Father's watch."

"So could you," Antoinette pointed out. "I'm sure soldiers are allowed a few personal items."

"We should all pick one small thing," Madeleine said.

"We should pick one small thing _for each other_ ," Therese corrected. "Tonton, you take Mama's pearl necklace. It means the most to you." She fished it out of the jewelry box and passed it to Antoinette.

Antoinette looked at the necklace: the long string of slightly lumpy freshwater pearls, each knotted individually onto the string and shining with a warm luster in the fading daylight and the glow of the oil sconce her sisters had lit on the wall. When she was young, their father had fastened it around their mother's neck before every special occasion -- seasonal festivals, weddings, birthdays, funerals, and sometimes just because wearing a special necklace and using fancy dishes could make any ordinary day feel like a blessing -- and the way he'd leaned close to whisper in her ear, the smile in her eyes as she fussed and adjusted the clasp, had always been Antoinette's private definition of love.

"Help me put it on?" she said, a little wobbly.

Therese solemnly leaned forward and fastened the pearls around Antoinette's neck. They fit perfectly.

"You should take Father's watch," Antoinette said to Madeleine in an effort to shove aside the rush of emotions. "He would have wanted you to have it." Madeleine had always been the one most careful about timing infusions, and most interested in making and fixing the delicate equipment of their stills. "And a watch is more portable than a sand-timer, and probably useful for coordinating army things."

"Yes," Therese agreed.

Madeleine pulled the gold fob watch out of the jewelry box and tucked it into the pocket of her new brown winter coat. "You should take Mama's butterfly hatpin, Reesy. You need something sharp to protect yourself, and something pretty to smile at, and it's important not to lose your hat as often as you always do if we're going to be living rough in the woods."

"I do not always lose my hat!" Therese protested.

"You really do," Antoinette said. "See, you took it off already and I bet you would have left without it." She picked the green wool hat off their bed (stripped of both blanket and sheets) and jammed it onto her sister's head. Then she slid the enameled hatpin through the tightly knit fabric and into the thick bristles between Therese's ears. "There. Much better. Just remember the pin and you'll never lose your hat again."

"But we'll lose you," Therese said softly.

Awkward silence blanketed the room as they faced that she'd said what they were all thinking, and that made it real in a way they could no longer avoid.

"Yes," Antoinette said. "You'll lose me and I'll lose you. I'm sorry."

"You really won't--" Madeleine started, then paused and corrected herself: "-- _can't_ come with us?"

Antoinette looked down at the scuffed floor. "I'd break. I'd break, and that would break you, and then we'd all be broken for nothing. At least this way we have a chance. And I think Tsunade needs a friend to watch out for her, just like Shizune could use another adult around."

"Looking after Humans isn't what I thought you'd pick as your life's work," Madeleine said.

Antoinette shrugged. "I didn't either. But I have to pick something and this feels right." She edged forward. "I'll miss you so much."

Therese lunged forward and shoved her snout into the soft flesh of Antoinette's neck -- the pressure ached and prickled faintly through the numbness, but Antoinette didn't care. Madeleine joined in, and they huddled together for a long moment.

"Until we meet again," Therese finally said, voice muffled by the collar of Antoinette's coat.

"In Aslan's Country, if not before," Madeleine added.

Antoinette breathed in deep, pressing her sisters' scents, the texture of their skin, the solid warmth of their bodies, deep into memory: a keepsake more precious than any pearls. "In Aslan's Country."

They finished packing the last few supplies and hauled the bags and boxes out to the main room, where Sergeant Greybriar and Private Gretel were still snoring in enchanted sleep. Tsunade, Shizune, and Lieutenant Brynnhild were waiting in the yard with the sled and the newly-made travois. As fresh snow began to fall through the paling light, they helped the sisters attach the bags firmly to the planks and netting.

Then all six of them stood in the yard and exchanged a series of awkward looks.

Lieutenant Brynnhild broke the silence. "When you put me to sleep, make sure I won't wake for two hours. That should be enough time for you to pass out of easy search range and for the snow to hide your trails."

"Understood. Do you need anything else to add verisimilitude?" Tsunade asked.

Lieutenant Brynnhild let her muzzle gape open for a moment in a canine smile. "No wounds are necessary. All members of the Secret Police have an intimate understanding of how difficult it is to confront magic." Her tone was very dry.

Antoinette puzzled at that for a moment, then felt a disconcerting rush of pity toward the Secret Police, both for what they must see done to innocent Narnians in the course of their duties and for what the Witch might do to them if she were displeased.

"I see," Tsunade said, equally dry. "I wish you strength in your struggle."

"Likewise," Lieutenant Brynnhild said. "Let's get on with it."

She walked back into the house and lay down on the floor. Tsunade made a series of gestures, face set in fierce concentration, and the Lieutenant sagged into sleep like a blanket folding down from a drying line into a basket of linens. After a moment, Antoinette ventured back inside, pulled the cloth off the dining table, and draped it over the Lieutenant's body.

Tsunade gave her an understanding nod.

As they walked back outside, Madeleine closed and locked the door behind them.

"In Aslan's Country," Therese said from where Shizune was helping fasten the straps of the travois harness around her shoulders.

"If not before," Antoinette returned as she slung her own packs over her red coat. She pressed close to her sisters one last time, going up to each in turn and kissing the sides of their faces.

Then they left their home forever, in different directions. Antoinette looked over her shoulder several times until both the house and her sisters had long since vanished from view.

"We'll reach the gateway soon," Tsunade said. "You can still turn back."

"I could. I won't."

They walked through the darkening woods, the thick shapes of pines and firs and spruces interspersed with the mostly bare branches of deciduous trees. Antoinette looked at the oaks, the beeches, the chestnuts, and the occasional walnut and remembered past years when her family spent whole weeks in autumn foraging through the fallen leaves and mast for nuts, some of which they ate on the spot, and others of which they carried home in bags and baskets to store for the winter or use as dyes. She remembered tapping sugar maples in the February thaws, and boiling down the sap for syrup that they used for cooking and to make herbal simples taste more palatable.

That life was gone now, destroyed first by the chaos and civil war that led to the Tree's death and then doubly so by the Witch's unnatural winter. The Narnia Antoinette loved was gone, buried under years of ice and snow. Maybe it was only sleeping. Maybe the resistance could defeat the Witch and return spring and summer and autumn to the land. She hoped so, for everyone's sake. Madeleine and Therese certainly had the determination to make it happen.

But the winter had frozen her roots and sap the way it froze the trees, and she couldn't keep living in a land turned harsh and unforgiving. Better to transplant herself and learn to thrive in new soils and climates.

They walked along the high banks of Tumbledown Creek for nearly a mile, the sun now well beneath the horizon and their way lit mostly by the faint silver of the rising gibbous moon, before Tsunade turned sharply to the left and began to climb a small, rocky outcropping.

"Will you need help?" Shizune murmured to Antoinette.

Antoinette shook her head. "Not unless we find a cliff. You go first. I may be able to catch you if you fall, but I don't think the reverse is true."

Shizune nodded, and they followed Tsunade up the rocky slope.

Near the top a crevice gaped between the rocks, half-blocked by ice where a tiny seep-spring trickled into the twilight. "This is where we came out," Tsunade said. "On the other side, in our world, it should lead to a cave on the Wind Country border where Shizune and I stopped for a midday break in our journey south to the ocean. Wind Country is a desert, very hot and dry, and we needed the rest and the shade."

"It was my fault we crossed through," Shizune said. "I was bored and started looking around without checking for any traps."

Tsunade pushed back the hood of Shizune's borrowed coat and ruffled her hair. "Don't be so hard on yourself. I didn't notice the gateway either, not until we'd both passed through. And it was my idea to explore instead of turning back immediately. I'm much more responsible for the trouble we brought to your family," she added, turning to Antoinette.

"We were already in trouble," Antoinette said. "We just didn't want to admit how deep it ran, and we couldn't decide what to do about it. This was coming for a long time."

"You're sure?" Tsunade asked one last time.

Antoinette looked back over the dark woods and waters of Narnia, bowed down with snow and ice and the frozen, helpless weight of rage and horror the Witch had stirred among all parts of a peaceful people. "Yes," she said, and walked forward into the ice-wreathed cave, out of her world and into the rest of her life.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, Antoinette is exactly who you think she is. No, I don't know what that's going to change in Naruto canon, but I'm fairly sure it's going to change _something_.
> 
> Narnia canon, meanwhile, will be carrying on exactly as before, because as far as Narnia is concerned, this story might as well not be a crossover at all -- you could swap in any random humans from a somewhat magical world-beyond-a-door without altering the plot. I feel a little weird writing a crossover that's unbalanced in that particular way, but past a certain point, you write the story that wants to be written. *hands*


End file.
